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Aspirin in water-tomatoe foliant to enhance immune system #813309

Asked October 05, 2022, 5:03 PM EDT

Is OSU doing any research using acetylsalicylic acid in water applied as foliant to enhance plant immune system and/or reduce drought stress?

Jackson County Oregon

Expert Response

Hi:  I looked around to see if I could find any reports on salicylic acid research at OSU, but nothing turned up, let alone anything involving tomato.  I don't have access to the breadth of research activities that are currently underway across the entire university researcher group; you would need to contact an administrator at the university as they would have the ability to search the OSU database of research activities for salicylic acid studies.  I would suggest contacting the Associate Dean of Extension, Sam Angima, (<personal data hidden>) if you would like to further pursue this information.

However, examination of activators of plant host defense responses, which is the property of salicylic acid treatment for plants, is still an area of research which has been active since at least the 1990's.  There are also other chemicals that have been studied that have similar properties to salicylic acid, and I found a report published in 2013 (https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2013.00116) that reported that applications of
salicylic acid to tomato helped plants compensate for salt stress, which could be similar to conditions of water stress, as well as helped tomato to withstand a bacterial leaf speck as well as a root rot disease.  But one of the issues with using aspirin as a foliar treatment is that it has not been researched sufficient for this to be a registered as a foliar fungicide.  I could find a product registered as a seed treatment that does contain salicylic acid as one of the active ingredients (https://www.cdms.net/ldat/ldANS003.pdf) and it can be used by commercial seed treatment facilities including on tomato seed.
An Ask Extension Expert Replied October 06, 2022, 7:50 PM EDT
thank you for your research.
I found an old report out of Cornell
In that report the foliar application was not in itself a deterrent for infestation but rather the application triggered a response of the plant itself to generate its own defense mechanisms to ward off attacks. I guess that is what you mean by “activator”. That paper I seem to remember involved potatoes but since tomato is a similar nightshade plant - the idea that it might be useful on other similar plants.
I also was told (no ref material) that soaking willow stems in water for a day and then using that water as a foliate would work. Obviously, willow contains salicylic acid whereas aspirin is acetylsalicylic acid.

So I guess OSU is not doing much research but there was some done back east.
I will continue researching.

thank you,

Seán Cawley



On Oct 6, 2022, at 16:50, Ask Extension <<personal data hidden>> wrote:

The Question Asker Replied October 07, 2022, 5:20 AM EDT

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